Don’t you hate it when you lose the battery cover off your remote control?

IdeaLab says in a few years, you could just download a file and print one out. The NY Times ran an article about a technology called rapid prototype printing, which has been in use in the industrial sector for several years. Using a layering process, a 3-D printer can produce a three-dimensional object out of powdered polymers.

Once the domain of science fiction (remember the replicator from Star Trek?), this technology is expected in a few years to become as affordable to home and office consumers as desktop laser printing was about fifteen years ago – within the range of $1000. One of the companies pioneering this technology, Desktop Factory, lists potential applications for such a device as creating sculpture using 3-D software, one-off toy production and custom replacement parts for household objects.

One thing’s for certain though – as with all printers, those replacement cartridges are going to cost a fortune.

Daniel Modell